Far Cry 3 and The Rape of Jason Brody

[Candidus]

Yes, I noticed this scene.

She's wearing her skirt and Jason doesn't do a thing with his trousers once he's standing. But I didn't bother to question at the time whether it had been a dryhump or whether the scene was a videogame logic moment intended to be read as sex.

I'm fine with it EITHER WAY. I really don't care at all which is true. Both are inoffensive to me.

That being said, I agree that the game wouldn't have seen release with a female protagonist in the same situation.

I guess we'll always have Corruption of Champions for that, no?

 

[Dogstile]

I don't think it's such a big double standard that everyone ITT is talking about. Yes if it were a female protagonist there would be an uproar, but I don't consider that particularly unjustified. Mainly because statistically, rape of females is a waaaay bigger problem than female on male rape. As in, female on male rape is less than 1 percent of all rapes to occur. Even male on male rape occurs far less than male on female.

Not that it makes the act any less terrible when it occurs, but there's really no use pretending female on male rape is an equal societal problem as the reverse.

"Is not a double standard because its not so bad when its a guy getting raped".

Who cares? Its not cool, it never will be. Its still sex with an unwilling person and it was fucked up. If you ever get raped and get told "its not really that much of a problem, it almost never happens to guys" you'd be pretty pissed.

Edit:

Does anyone think that they only left the clothes on to avoid having the player look at animated genitals? Those have been a no go in triple A gaming since I can remember.

 

[Loonyyy]

1) She's wearing a skirt.
2) Jason is wearing pants, and I don't recall him pulling them up and zipping up his fly afterwards.

Whatever your problem with it: You have to make a lot of assumptions which are contradicted by the source to call it rape.

Yup. They were just humping with their jimmies on. That's all I saw.

In no way did I see that as "rape".

If we're talking rape, we'd have more luck discussing a certain male deer and his basement victim.

AKA My favourite character in the game.

Buck's a chaotic evil, sarcastic, sardonic, prankster, and also a raping, slaving, torturing bastard. It's like too much black humour at once. It's a shame the game didn't give more screentime to him and Vaas. Eventually Hoyt gets some depth, but he's never as entertaining as they are.

Although, it may be that Buck is basically an evil version of my College Chemistry teacher, who spent an entire semester pretending to be House.

 

[Milanezi]

It isn't the only "suggested rape" in the game. One of the characters is kept underground in some filthy cellar, chained to a bed. Presumably being raped every single day by his captor. No one talked about that either, I mean.. nothing, I didn't see any mention of it on the Garme jurnalizm! grapevine..

Lara Croft wasn't raped, and we've only seen the trailer. She was groped and "grabbed at", but the entire internet was in an uproar, and I was embarrassed just having to be present in the same universe. Why Lara uproar/controversy and no mention of this? Because unwarranted militant feminism.

As far Brody getting date-raped. If you had played a Jill Brody, I can tell you right now we wouldn't be discussing whether or not Jill "seemed to enjoy it anyway", otherwise you would get banned. That's right, you are not allowed to mirror a female character like this at all, because it's not allowed.

Although the morality of rape scenes in games bore the fuck out of me (people get angry with any rape theme in games, but it's okay in movies, and at the same time they want to compare mediums), I must point out that I do agree with you, the feminist-protection sure in hypocrisy when it feels like it, raising questions when it's a woman only makes them seem all the more frail, opposed to EQUAL to men.

 

[sethisjimmy]

I don't think it's such a big double standard that everyone ITT is talking about. Yes if it were a female protagonist there would be an uproar, but I don't consider that particularly unjustified. Mainly because statistically, rape of females is a waaaay bigger problem than female on male rape. As in, female on male rape is less than 1 percent of all rapes to occur. Even male on male rape occurs far less than male on female.

Not that it makes the act any less terrible when it occurs, but there's really no use pretending female on male rape is an equal societal problem as the reverse.

"Is not a double standard because its not so bad when its a guy getting raped".

Who cares? Its not cool, it never will be. Its still sex with an unwilling person and it was fucked up. If you ever get raped and get told "its not really that much of a problem, it almost never happens to guys" you'd be pretty pissed.

Edit:

Does anyone think that they only left the clothes on to avoid having the player look at animated genitals? Those have been a no go in triple A gaming since I can remember.

You misunderstood. I did say that it doesn't make the act any less terrible, I just said that it's not really a big problem in society compared to male on female rape.

 

[bastardofmelbourne]

Does anyone think that they only left the clothes on to avoid having the player look at animated genitals? Those have been a no go in triple A gaming since I can remember.

The intent of the scene was definitely that they were having sex. The fact that they were doing it right through Jason's pants is, I think, catering to this sense of puritanical modesty.

That aside, the fact that Jason was obviously totally okay with the fact that he'd just had sex should completely rule out any question of whether it was rape. I see no reason why we should be outraged about it.

 

[bastardofmelbourne]

You misunderstood. I did say that it doesn't make the act any less terrible, I just said that it's not really a big problem in society compared to male on female rape.

The fact that instances of female-on-male rape are infrequent should not make the casual dismissal of female-on-male rape any less of a double standard.

We don't judge the outrageousness of a crime by the frequency of its occurrence. The fact that female-on-male rape doesn't happen very often should not in any way impact the controversy caused by a depiction of female-on-male rape, or "justify" a higher level of controversy in reaction to a similar depiction of male-on-female rape.

The logical implication of what you said is that female-on-male rape is less controversial because it does not happen as often. That is absurd.

 

[bastardofmelbourne]

Yeah, it's a double standard. But double standards are there for a reason - there is far, FAR more cases of male on female rape than in reverse.

I really have to reiterate this - how in the name of God's lily-white buttcheeks does the frequency of female-on-male rape affect the severity of its nature or determine the volatility of our response to it?

Why does the fact that male-on-female rape is more common justify the imposition of a double standard? Why have a double standard at all? Why do it?

 

[BloodSquirrel]

Two reasons plus one:

1) It isn't explicitly sex. She's on top of him, but we don't see anything, including either of them putting their pants back on afterward.

2) Jason Brody doesn't react at all to it. He reacts the way you'd react to waking up to find your cat sleep on your feet. So he's clearly not traumatized.

The other reason:

The game's narrative is broken in so many places that it hardly stands out. There's much more explicit rape (Courtesy of Buck), and Jason comes off as such a schizophrenic, disjointed character that most people aren't looking at the finer points. My reaction to the scene was that it was just one more point where the story couldn't be bothered to either make Jason into a real person or give me enough control to let him be a real player avatar.

 

[Insanity72]

i don't think there was any actual penetration between Jason and Citra, he had pants on which he never adjusted or anything and she was still wearing her skirt (and presumably underwear).

 

[psyco]

I remember feeling disturbed by both scenes, though Buck really was... a lot more creepy. Just the constant reminders what he was possibly/probably/definitely doing to the boy and then when you finally rescue him...
It was harsh. I liked that it was harsh and not something that was to be laughed about. Jasons' reactions to it.

Doesn't mean I am comfortable with it. Its not okay to use rape with female npcs (or worse, pcs), its definitely also not okay to use it with male ones. I would rather have my games without those, really...

 

[MetalDooley]

I spoke with a friend of mine who had just beaten the game and I asked him what he thought about the first case, as far as I can remember anyway, of male rape in a video game.

Nah Alpha Protocol had the whole female on male rape thing covered several years ago

Spoiler: How to get raped in Alpha Protocol

In AP you play as secret agent Mike Thorton.During the events that take place in Moscow you will encounter a female mercenary named Sie.Sie is one the the "romance" options but is diferent to the others as she likes "bad boys".The only way to get her to desire you is by being dismissive and outright hostile to her.Hell you can even choose to physically attack her at the end of the mission where you first meet.Assuming she survives you can select her as your handler for the final mission.Now remember that up to this point you have shown zero interest in her sexually.Anyway during the final mission you are captured and strapped to a table.Sie comes to rescue you but before she does she decides she is going to have sex with you first.She is then shown undressing and climbing on top of you before the scene fades to black.Congratulations you've just been raped

Fear 2 also had the main protagonist get raped as well as other have already mentioned

Why has this act gone unnoticed by many players and the gaming media?

Because male rape is only seen as a bad thing if it's male on male rape.Otherwise it's either glossed over or played for laughs.Cracked.com summed it up best

"Obviously if you're watching a scene with a woman tied to a bed while a man forces sex on her, the final act of that movie will involve said man getting shot in the face by Bruce Willis. If, on the other hand, it's a man being tied down and forced into sex by a pretty lady, well, you're watching a wacky romantic comedy."
?C. Coville, Cracked, 6 Romantic Movie Gestures That Can Get You Prison Time

 

[bastardofmelbourne]

Because if the genders were swapped it would be rape. Add in the fact Jason was given hallucinogenics and other psychotropics, yeah, you are not in your mindset in that scenario. This leads you to two outcomes, if the genders were swapped and you say it was rape, then you are a hypocrite, if you say it wasn't rape, then you are consistent.

*Addendum, whether someone enjoys it is irrelevant if they are in an alter state.

If the genders were swapped it still wouldn't be rape. Rape is nonconsensual sex. Jason obviously consented to the arrangement, given his reaction when the sex finishes. It doesn't matter if he's Jason or Jess, it wouldn't be rape. It would be perceived as rape, because we would assume that Jess had been taken advantage of, but if Jess willingly had sex it still isn't rape.

I can tell someone's going to say that Jason couldn't consent while under the influence, but a) that approach means my girlfriend raped me every time she woke me up with a blowjob on my birthday, and b) we don't know if the drugs Jason got actually removed his ability to consent. We don't know what drugs they are. They gave him a trippy hallucination that I assumed was a metaphor for sex, but that's not exactly the same thing as rohypnol or alcohol-induced unconsciousness.

And given the fact that he was clearly okay with it, the whole point is moot. No-one would prosecute a rape case where the "victim" is okay with the sex that happened. Especially given that there are much better examples of male rape victims both in Far Cry 3 and in other games, like FEAR 2.

 

[Catie Caraco]

Anyways, after watching the video....I'm not sure he was raped. WAIT! put down the pitch forks and torches! I'm not saying he WASN'T just that I noticed that Citra was still wearing her skirt...thing...which could very well have a crotch and Brody is still wearing pants. While she was grinding atop him and he did caress her breats, that doesn't necessarily mean they were having sex. Brody gets up and gives a speech and he doesn't have to button up his pants and Citra herself never seemed to do such a thing either so either his pants were never removed or he was standing there with his pants around his ankles and his dick hanging out. It looked to me that she was just grinding atop him...maybe giving him a painful boner...but not forcing him to have sex.

I think that could just be the limitations of the in game models used, or it could stem from the backlash of Mass Effect 1's side boob and butt. I mean, all of the love scenes in Dragon Age Origins have the participants still in their underwear, but it's clearly implied that sex happened. The discussions afterwards and the party banter make it clear enough.

Actually, I just watched the video and now I'm less sure about either side than ever.

Now, I haven't played this game, so I don't know the context of what happens after. The fact that they had an audience is super weird, and uncomfortable. I mean, do any of those guys pat him on the back like "Way to go man, she totally boned you"? Is it ever brought up again?

The evidence from the video doesn't suggest penetration happened, so I don't think it was /rape/ so much as /molestation/. Which is still super wrong and not ok. His touching of her face afterwards though, that's a kinda tender moment which does suggest that he's ok with it. That doesn't mean he SHOULD be.

All in all I'd say this scene was poorly executed and it left me with a bad taste in my mouth.